Our Opinion: Back to the drawing board with UIS mascot options

Add to the list of thankless jobs we’d never want: university mascot creator. Coming up with a good school mascot is a difficult assignment, as evidenced by the options presented this week to students, alumni and staff of the University of Illinois Springfield.

Add to the list of thankless jobs we’d never want: university mascot creator.

Coming up with a good school mascot is a difficult assignment, as evidenced by the options presented this week to students, alumni and staff of the University of Illinois Springfield.

The school’s athletics sports teams currently are known as the Prairie Stars, a nickname that dates back to 1977 when UIS was Sangamon State University.

Students have asked for a new, modern mascot, although alumni have indicated they are OK with continuing the Prairie Stars tradition. UIS hired Louisville, Ky., consultant Studio Simon to come up with some possibilities.

The company proposed four: Mammoths, Sabers, Stampede and Springers.

The suggested mascots are – to put it as delicately as possible – strange. It’s almost as if the consultants took a stroll through the Illinois State Museum to mine ideas.

A mammoth is an extinct elephant-like animal that grazed the Midwestern landscape about 1.5 million years ago. It was large and not particularly fast, and it went extinct in North America 10,000 years ago. Why the consultants thought athletes would want to be associated with mammoths is a mystery.

“Sabers” refers to the saber-toothed cat, another Ice Age animal that lived in the Midwest and went extinct about 11,000 years ago. According to the state museum’s website, “The sabertooth had short, powerful legs. These animals were not built to run fast or far. (It) was probably an ambush hunter.” It’s a puzzling, though not completely hopeless, suggestion.

The Stampede is an interesting possibility, but the lack of an s at the end of the name lends to awkward grammatical issues (the Stampede is, or the Stampede are?). The logo designed by Studio Simon shows a bison, an animal that hasn’t been plentiful in Illinois since the 1700s and disappeared entirely about 1810.

“Springers” is a reference to Springfield, though it’s not immediately obvious. The suggested mascot is a Springer Spaniel dog – cute but far from intimidating, and not exactly a mascot that leaves your opponents’ knees knocking from fear.

The challenges of creating a great mascot are many: Find something clever but not absurd; something identifiable but not ordinary; something that lends to logos and marketing, but also to a costumed character; something that is not offensive, racist or bigoted; and something that will stand the test of time.

The proposed mascots Studio Simon presented to UIS are underwhelming and fail to connect with people. The other options on the table include sticking with Prairie Stars, or more simply “the Stars,” but updating the logo, mascot and marketing materials. But, then, “Stars” isn’t exactly a fearsome mascot, either.

By Tuesday afternoon, an online poll at SJ-R.com, The State Journal-Register’s website, showed 55-percent support for the Prairie Stars or Stars mascot. Whether that’s because people like the Stars or because there wasn’t a none-of-the-above option is unknown. “Sabers” was in second with 16 percent of the votes, and “Stampede” was in third with 9 percent.

Page 2 of 2 - Designing a new mascot for UIS – one that’s interesting and instills pride in the community – won’t be easy. But Studio Simon’s suggestions are a miss. UIS needs to go back to the drawing board.